I promised to review new "recreational" drugs with crazy names. So as promised, here is installment #1: Krokodil
This one is big, bad and very literally ugly. Krokodil is a drug containing several things: Desomorphine (8-10x more potent than morphine and easily synthesized from codeine), red phosphorous and iodine and occasionally other additives. It originated in Russia in 2010 and is more recently being seen spreading in the USA. The problem with this particular drug is that it is made similarly to Heroin and it is often highly impure, containing highly toxic and corrosive byproducts. Whereas heroin lasts for 4-8 hours, the high from this drug only lasts 1.5 hours, increasing its likelihood for addiction formation.
What happens when you ingest corrosive things? Your skin falls off.
You heard me correctly. Krokodil gained its name because of its very characteristic side effect of flesh "eating", severe tissue damage, gangrene and phlebitis (inflammation of the vessels) in some cases resulting in amputation. The amount of tissue damage can be so extensive that an addict's life expectancy while on this drug is reduced to 2-3 years. Images were too graphic for me to post on this blog but feel free to google krokodil.
Alarming? Yes. One may say that the outrageous side effects would reduce how popular this drug becomes but remember when Bath Salts became associated with psychosis and cannibalistic rage? Sadly that didn't make that drug any less popular.
Look out for this one. Scary Stuff.
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